Under a blood red moon
by freaky bitch
Summary: My varitation on the fairytale Snow white. horror.


**Under a blood red moon**

_A fairytale with a dark twist. This time there won't be an happily ever after._

The blood red moon shone bright above the endless woods. It was a dead place, where the trees where bare and had no leafs, the ground was dusty and animals did not dare to enter. And in the midst of it all, between the crooked trees and bushes with only thorns and no leafs, stood a mountain, tall and unforgiving in the pale light.

But the forest, as far as you could call it that as there was no green to be seen in miles, was not as undisturbed as usual. A young girl was running trough the trees, just barley noticing the thorns that scratched her leg and branches that tangled in her hair. She had been on a holiday with her parents and her dad had wanted to avoid the woods, because the roads where almost never used and perhaps not even suited for driving. But they didn't have another choice when they missed the turn on the freeway, and the road had looked so _pretty_ all covered in moonlight. Too alluring to resist. But suddenly, there had been an sharp left turn behind a few boulders. Brakes screaming, headlights cutting through the night and a loud explosion of something.

Now the car was lying wrecked in the abysses next to the road, her mum and dad both hanging limply in the car seats, with only the seatbelts holding them in place. Abigail knew very well that it was nothing short of a miracle that she got out of the car and was probably the only survivor, but she was not yet ready to admit that yet. She could not reach the car or her parents, but still furiously believed that they still could be saved. So she went to seek for help in the forest, unknowingly getting herself further and further away form the inhabited world.

And so she was still running, feet digging in the mud, the underside of her left pants-leg ripped and dirty. She had scratches on her face and her hands where bleeding.

She past by a pond, the water was still and unmoving, not a ripple was to be seen in the pitch black depths. The mountain that loomed above it all was her only guide, for the moon had traitorously hid behind the clouds for the moment. So she followed the top of the dark mountain she could see above the black, with mold covered trees. Hoping it would lead her out of the woods and into civilization.

After running for what seemed like ages she reached the foot of the mountain that stood proud in the centre of the landscape. There where holes in the sides, old-fashioned wooden constructions that indicated that perhaps it was a passage. After she came a bit closer she recognized it for what it was. Mines. People had one dug here for precious metals, taking everything out of the ground that they could find and sell. It looked rather macabre in the dull light, surrounded by the dead forest.

She looked at the bottomless holes of the empty mines, ragged carts stood motionless on a hidden track. Rusty pick-axes biting bitter in the dusty ground. People had been working here, they, who-ever 'they' where, definitely had been searching for something, but what? And how long ago? She couldn't possibly tell, maybe they had been working here this morning and maybe no one had been here for a century, it had a sort off ageless look, as if time had stood still. A shiver ran down her spine, the place was creepy and she wanted to leave. Get out of this wood, find people and rescue her parents.

She walk a few more meters before she saw something that almost made her smile. Whoever worked here, had done this so frequently that he (she, it, they) had left a dusty, worn path that went from the mine into the woods. The small line of trampled on branches gave her a small spark of hope. 'People!' was the only thought in her brain, before she quickly changed directions to follow the path.

After a few minutes of following the trail, and she could thing a little clearer. It did not seem such a great idea as it had before. 'what if's' started to ghost trough her thoughts, but realy, what else could she do? As she followed the path because it was the only thing she could do, just a little bit afraid of who –or what- she would find at the end of it.

After following the trail for what seemed ages she came to a small clearing, it was there suddenly, or perhaps she had just been unobservant. In the middle of the small space stood a old cottage, bathing in the red moonlight, that had just decided to come back from behind the clouds.

The walls of the small house consisted of larger than life stone bricks, the roof was made of rotten straw and that was really all that was to it. No chimney, no garden, nothing. But the thing that intrigued her the most (as far as that could in her dazed and tired state) were the odd door and windows. The door and windows consisted of one large iron plate for each, looking strong and odd on the otherwise weak and old looking house.

Did someone still live here? She sincerely hoped so, she was at the end of her strength and didn't think she could even make it to the door. Her feet felt like led and the way to the door seemed twice as long as the whole time she spent running through the woods.

Right before the door her legs gave up on her. She reached up for it, unable to move from her position on the ground if she could reach it this way, and knocked, the dull sound ringing loud in the silent forest. Then she almost laughed at herself and how dramatic this whole situation was. And she would have laughed if not she suddenly saw the faces of her parents flash in her mind. Almost immediately she went back to being her scared, tired self again.

For a while nothing happened. But then she heard voices on the other side of the door.

"Is it her? Could she be here already?" a frightened voice from behind the door said.

"No, not yet, it's still to early. She would have called us. This wasn't her, this sounded different."

"What do we do?"

"Don't open, who ever it is, don't let them in!" said a harsh fourth voice.

From the middle of the iron door a small window opened. "It's a girl!" a surprised voice said. The door opened, she felt someone lift her up and take her inside. Then everything went black.

When Abigail woke up she was lying in a bed that was just large enough to fit all of her. She pushed herself up with her elbows and look around in surprise. On her left there were seven men sitting around a long table. The men looked like old stones with sadness and fear carved into their faces. She was to surprised to say anything, and non of them spoke.

Silence ruled.

"You shouldn't have come here." One of them said suddenly to her. Abigail didn't answer, there was nothing to say.

Then, during the silence that followed, everything came rushing back to her. Disregarding her surprise of seeing such odd people, images of the accident flew in and out of her mind. She remembered in one shock why she was in this god forsaken wood again.

"We must save them! They are in the car. My parents. Please help them!" She spoke in a panic, getting toung-tied in her hurry to explain.

The larges of the seven looked at her in contemplation and then slowly shook his head. "No, it's to late, much to late."

"Yes, the moon is getting redder and redder." The man sitting on his left said. "It is almost midnight."

"Yes, but..."

"If we go outside now, we will be lost for ever" A voice that shook in the middle said.

"The wood is evil, it has been ever since – " But the other hissed warningly before he could continue further.

"Tomorrow" said the one that had spoken before, turning his head in her direction."Tomorrow we will go find your parent's, but not now."

"There is a village not far from here." Another butted in. "We will take you there tomorrow."

Abigail opened her mouth to argue, but when she saw the looks of pure horror on there faces she shut her mouth. She knew there was something wrong with the forest, who wouldn't, everything dead, the creepy trees, and these odd people. And it was almost morning anyway she argued with herself, it would only be a few hours longer.

"We can't keep her here" Came a whisper she did not think she was meant to hear. One of the men hissed softly at her direction, and an other gave her the stink eye.

"No, don't worry, it's just for one night" the biggest said, and most of the men seemed mollified with that. Turning their backs towards her.

And Abigail was so grateful she could kiss him, anything but going back in there again. One of them walked to the door, opened the little window in it, took a quick glance, and closed it again. When the window opened Abigail felt the cold from the outside seeping in. It was as if it drifted towards her, it filled her heart and circulated in her blood. It made her feel terrible hot on the inside and so, so cold on the outside. It was as if her blood wanted out, out of her body to flow into the open, for the world to see. Whiles her skin tried to reason with her blood and keep it inside with all it's might. Something in the woods called out to her blood and she froze with fear.

The men saw her stiffen, they shared a look, and promptly secured the windows and door with heavy iron bars, that had stood next to it previously.

"there isn't any mist yet" Said the one who had looked through the window in the door "If she leaves now, she might find the way back."

"No"

"You shouldn't have come here." One mumbled without looking at her. "No one has been here since.." The traces of sadness got deeper and deeper on their face as they spoke, almost at the same time: "Never again"

One of them hung a iron kettle above the fire in the corner of the room. "I'll brew her the sleeping potion that-"

"Shhhh!"

"-used to make for us when we couldn't sleep."

They made something for her, and shoved it towards her. But she did not dare to drink it, until one of them took a sip of the cup and then handed it to her. When she drank from it, her blood calmed down and the coldness in there fingertips disappeared. While she drunk she looked at the men surrounding her. They had big hands with rough skin, their beards where grey and not cared, they looked wild, like caged animals. When she finished drinking they took her to the attic, or what she thought to be the attic.

Under the roof of rotten straw, stood eight beds, she only fitted in the last one. When she lay down one of the men, the one who had spoken in favour of her staying here, went to sit besides it. She absently wondered whose bed this had been. It was bigger than all the other beds.

"Who are you?" She asked sleepily "It seems all so familiar." Could it be?.. "No, don't be silly, that's just a story." She mumbled. Then yawned, to tired to think straight, but still finding it all too curious to fall asleep.

The man rubbed trough his beard. "Many have heard of us, or a piece of it anyway. You probably know it too, but we are the only ones who know how it really ended."

The sleep was slowly claiming her, putting a grey blanked on the memories of the car accident. Only the room and the straw –what was actually more fungus than straw, but she didn't care- looked real to her. Much more tangible than anything else in her life. "Tell me." She murmured. "Tell me, I don't remember anymore." The man rubbed through his beard again and started his tale.

"It's an old story. The story of a princess and prince, he a hero she a dream; her hair in thick black curls, her lips as red as blood and a face as white as the purest snow. The most beautiful girl you would ever see. And once upon a time, when the sun still lightened and warmed our house, when there where butterfly's and deer's who drank from the clear water in the pond. The wood hid her for the evil that was looking for her. She cooked for us, washed our clothing and kept the house clean. But when the happy times dulled our reflexes, when we thought we would live like that forever, the evil witch found her. She waited until we where working in the mines and killed our little princess."

He drew a sharp breath.

"When we came home we found her; dead, yet calm, as if asleep. Her heart didn't beat but still death hadn't come to take what was his. We didn't dare to burry her, she looked so alive… Oh how I wish we had. Six feat deep in a leaden coffin.

But we didn't have the heart, we where so sure se was alive even if her blood was already cold. So we made a coffin made of glass at the foot of the mountain."

"What about the prince?" Asked Abigail sleepily.

"The prince came, oh he did. He came from the castle on the mountain. He found the coffin and was immediately smitten. He opened the coffin and kissed her."

"Oh yes." Abigail said. "And they lived happily ever.. ever.." That was as far as she got before the sleep claimed her.

The old man looked at her sleeping face for a while. "No" he wisperd "No, not happily… just ever after. So, so long after." He walked down the stairs and closed the door behind him.

Abigail dreamt about the car accident over and over again, she saw the Sharp turn and the trees next to the road. She looked at her parents who where hanging in the seats, but in her dream they were not unmoving. Covered in blood they opened their eyes and smiled at her, they called out for her in dead, flat voices, they reached out for her with their arms torn up and anything but living. So she ran, she fled into the wood as fast as her legs could carry her. "Abby! Come back, come back to us."

When she heard her name she shot right up and looked around in panic. She was alone, alone in the attic. With the seven small beds lined up like coffins around her. It was a dream, just a dream.

A dream? The whole wood was a dream? The seven men? And the story that seemed so familiar? But when she looked around it was terrible clear that the house and the wood had not been a dream. Then she heard the voice again that had waked her, it was soft, far away floating as the mist around the trees. "Let me in" The voice was sweet, so sweet and was now floating right in front of the house. "Can I come in?"

Beneath her she heard the men move, hasty footsteps and the moving of the bars that kept the door closed. Where they opening or closing it? Again the voice sounded. Tempting, full of promises, it could take you anywhere without you complaining, no one could say no to such a voice.

Abigail wanted to go towards the voice and stay with it for the rest of her life. She climbed out of bed and moved to the door that linked the attic to the rest of the house. But no mater how hard she pulled, the door didn't open. It must have been locked from the outside she figured. How could she reach the voice if the door wouldn't budge? The roof had no window's only gaps where the straw had rotten completely.

Quietly she kneeled and pushed some straw out of her way to create a gap that was big enough to let some moonlight in. She looked outside and saw the castle that was build halfway up the mountain. The moon beat down merciless on the piles of old rock, that once had been a proud fortress. Abigail couldn't bear the sight and looked down at the mist that was curling around the trees and the person dressed in a dark cloak that stood outside the house. A glimpse of the face melted her breath and made her blood run cold. The face she saw was twisted in an idiotic sneer, with an angry mouth, a large hooknose and eyes made of hazy fire. Could this sweet voice really belong to someone like this?

She quickly stepped away from the gap she had been looking through and hid in a corner on the other side of the attic. A witch, _the_ witch.

"let me in" screeched the voice, all sweetness gone, finally letting her true voice hear. "I know she is inside".

" No! you'll never enter our house"

She was trembling in fear, but wanted to look through the gap again so badly. She silently walked forwards and peered outside. The mist was a gray wall swirling around the person in the black cloak. For a second she saw a glimpse of red. A mouth? No, it was an apple.

Abigail wobbled backwards, and fell on one of the eight beds. Eight..

Then she understood; seven dwarfs, a princess, a witch, a prince and an apple. "Many know our story" the man had said to her "But only we know how it really ended."

And now she knew too, or at least she thought se new. The prince had kissed the princess and she had woken up from her eternal slumber, he had taken her to his castle where they would have lived happily ever after. Would have... they had forgotten the witch, the evil stepmother. Her revenge had been horrible and cruel, she destroyed the castle and bewitched the wood. Only her revenge on the dwarfs had failed. "Give me the girl! I know she's inside" the witch screeched. She looked at the eighth bed, the one she had been lying in, the bed that belonged to snow-white.

And now, outside stood the witch trying to claim her daughter. Snow-white must have escaped the witch. But with her prince death, the castle in ruins, where could she go? Back to the house of the ever so friendly dwarfs of course! So that was why the door and windows where made of massif iron, the dwarfs must have found something that rejected the magic of the witch. But where had snow-white hidden herself? The basement? _"I know she's inside"_ the witch had said.

Then Abigail suddenly realized that in the midst of her musings everything had gone quiet. She listened for a bit longer, but when nothing happened she decided that the danger was over for at least tonight. Abigail got upright and walked to the door, priding herself that her walk was (almost) steady.

Many questions where filling her head even though the sleeping potion was still affective. It made her thoughts spin in her head and her sight blurry. She couldn't recall why she had thought that the blur of red she had seen had been an apple. Maybe it was all just her imagination.

She knocked on the door, but no one responded so perhaps they didn't hear. There was not a sound from downstairs, as if the cottage was empty. Had the seven left the house? She walked to the gap to peer outside. The sky was a large black blanked that spread above everything she could see. It seemed as if the moon stood lower than it did before, the shadow of the mountain had the shape of a tusk and ended just near the cottage. From up here she couldn't see if the doors or window's had been opened but nothing moved in the small open space or between the trees.

One shred of mist lifted and bend up into the sky, only to come back down again. The shred of mist started to move and swirl around as if there was a fish swimming in there. Then there were swirls everywhere. And Abigail couldn't help but think that the trees suddenly looked very alive.

Now Abigail could see her. She was standing in the mist, a white dress and black curls dancing around her pale fragile face. It was her, the princess with skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. Snow white made her way trough the mist towards the cottage. Abigail's heart started to bloom like a flower. This nightmare would have an happily ever after, she was sure of it now.

The characters of the ancient old story had come to life and she was in the midst of it. She didn't know how, she didn't know why, but frankly, she didn't care. Then something in the woods moved, and it wasn't snow white. Was is her imagination? Was it the mist? Or did she really see the silhouette of the witch behind that tree?

"Snow white! Quick, over here! Come inside." She screamed hoping that Snow white would make it inside before the witch got to her. The princess in the mist slowly raised her head, looking at Abigail and then smiling, showing lips red as blood and white teeth. And more teeth. And more teeth. It seemed as if her teeth never ended. Until the mist started to rise and rise until it completely engulfed the princess.

Abigail didn't hear the door unlock or open, she didn't notice the largest of the men grab her shoulder and snatch her away from the gap in the roof. His eyes filled with horror and tears that rolled down his cheeks like pearls. But she snapped out of her daze when he started screaming.

"What did you do! You asked her in! You invited her!"

"It was the princess" Abigail said dreamily "It was Snow white"

"She hasn't been that for a long time" The voice of the man had lost all it's sound. "We should have send you back into the woods." He said. "Now you invited her, and everything is lost"

A shred of mist glided trough the gap in the roof Abigail had created. And the man backed away from it when it glided towards him.

"Why didn't you understand what I told you? She is coming for you! She knows your inside." The man paused and turned his voice to a mere whisper, as if he wasn't speaking to her but himself. "Dead. She was dead. But the prince brought her back to life. Why don't you understand?"

The shred of fog that ad floated inside turned into a woman with a white dress. Red eyes bore hungry in Abigail's eyes, who looked back as if bewitched.

"You didn't want to let me in" She said to the men without lifting her eyes from Abigail's. Her voice was like liquid silver, smooth and beautiful but it could burn you with a mere touch. "You didn't want to invite me to come in. poor me. I've been so dead, only to come alive with so much thirst... Luckily this child has more than enough to satisfy it."

"No" The man choked out. And he went to stand in front of Abigail serving as a shield. But with an inhuman strength he was immediately swept away.

"I would have wanted to love my prince." Snow white said to Abigail while licking her lips. "But I was dead, and the only thing I wanted from him was his delicious warm blood."

She looked Abigail straight in the eye, and the girl saw in there the real ending of the story that the dwarf had started to tell her. She saw how the prince had taken the dead princess out of her glass coffin and how the princess awoke. Not dead, not alive. He took her to his castle, the wedding was a dream of light and glamour. But the light died down and the glamour disappeared with the life in the rooms of the castle. It became cold and empty, it crumbled just like the wood. The undead took possession of everything. The end of the fairytale, not happily ever after, only ever after. So, so long after. Undead. Forever.

The princess shook her disguise off. The hair black as ebony and white dress disappeared in the mist. Only her skin white as snow and lips red as blood stayed the same. A starving figure looked hungrily at her. The men tumbled down the stairs as fast as they could, once they had been safe as long as they staid inside. Now, nothing was safe anymore. They fled into the woods hoping and praying Abigail would stop it long enough for them to find a safe place to wait for dawn.

The moon shining brighter red than ever before.

My apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes.

I wrote this on a whim, when I remembered a book I had read as child that had a likewise plot. And so, because I couldn't find the book I decided to write my own version of it.

I hope you like it ^^ let me know and review.


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